Tube gear for sliver coilers



Nov. 20, I956 G. c. ANDERSON ET AL ,7

' TUBE GEAR FOR SLIVER COILERS Filed Feb. 11, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORS g; M Q, A, dbl-4W ATTORNEV United States Patent "O p 2,770,845 TUBE GEAR FOR SLIVER COILERS Gordon C. Anderson, Biddeford, and Paul B. West, Kennebunk, Maine, assignors to Saco-Lowell Shops, Boston, Mass.', a corporation of Maine Application February 11, 1954, Serial No. 409,702

4 Claims. (Cl- 19-159) 'to permit winding. In achieving such patterns, it is customary in the art to rotate such a can about its axis, and atthe same time feed into the top of the can sliver which is itself being made to describe a circular path above the can about an axis displaced from the axis of the can but parallel to it. To give a sliver this motion, a tube gear has been placed above the can, for rotation about an axis parallel with the can axis, and with a hole therein extending obliquely from an upper orifice with the center thereof on the axis of the tube gear down to a lower orifice, in the lower face of the tube gear, near the periphery thereof.

Such tube gears heretofore known and used have been fabricated in a single piece-from cast iron. The hole therethrough has extended without change of direction from upper orifice to lower, with the consequence that the lower orifice has been elliptical rather than circular in shape. In order to prevent sliver damage, it has been necessary to provide a radius around the lower orifice, since the sliver passed over an edge thereof. Considerable expenditure of time and effort in shaping the lower orifice has been made necessary by the elliptical shape thereof, which made it impossible to fabricate such a radius by straight-forward and simple metal-working techniques, as in a lathe, but required tedious and expensive hand work.

Another manufacturing difficulty with the one piece tube gear is that any porosity in the casting becomes a surface irregularity in the interior of the tube when the casting is drilled and this results in undesirable friction on the fibers passing through the tube.

One object of the present invention is to provide a new tube gear in which the lower orifice of the tube is circular, so that sliver may fall freely therefrom, and also a radius may be supplied at junction of hole and lower face of gear easily and inexpensively if desired.

A further object is to provide such a gear characterized by an efiicient construction making practical the elimination of casting problems in its manufacture.

Still another object is to provide such a tube gear through which sliver passes freely and easily despite the fact that the hole terminating in the lower orifice through which sliver emerges is carried in an element separate from the tube, and that the axes of said hole and said tube are not along a common line, but rather define an angle therebetween.

Generally speaking, the new tube gear of our invention comprises a base portion carrying the gear teeth and having therein near the periphery thereof a vertical hole or passage terminating in an orifice in the lower face of said base portion, and-a separate tube element positioned above the base element by means cooperating with the latter. We have found that sliver passes with surprising smoothness and freedom from damage through said tube element and down through said passage if the lower face of the tube element is spaced a short distance above the upper face of the base element so that fibers will not catch and remain therein to cause log jams, but rather will either pass freely therethrough and escape to the atmosphere or be pulled back therefrom by the moving sliver and carried along therewith. We have found that for best results the upper face of the base element in the vicinity of said passage and the lower face of the tube element should be arranged so that every part of the upper of the two opposing orifices lies overa corresponding part of the lower thereof.

Other objects, features and advantages will become apparent from the description below of a preferred embodiment of the invention, taken in connection with the drawings, in which:

Fig. l is a side elevation, partially in section, of a preferred embodiment of our tube gearv as mounted for rotation over a can mounted for rotation about a difierent axis but driven from a common drive shaft; and

Fig. 2 is a plan view of said embodiment, together with driving means therefor, and shows in section a housing therearound.

Referring now to thedrawings, there is shown in Fig. 1 a sliver coiler having acan2 for storage of sliver therein, and means indicated generally at 4 for supporting said can for rotation about a vertical axis. Mounted above said can 2, for rotation about a diiferent vertical axis, is a preferred embodiment of our new tube gear, indicated generallyat 6. The tube gear 6 and the can 2 are rotatably driven from a common shaft 8, the former through gear 10. Also driven by the shaft 8 is a calender, indicated generally at 12, through which the sliver passes just before entering tube gear 6. Over the tube gear 6, gear 10, and calender 12 extends the cover 14.

The tube gear 6 comprises a base member 16 mounted for rotation in a horizontal plane about a vertical axis and having therearound gear teeth 1 and having therein near the periphery thereof and spaced from the axis of rotation thereof a vertical hole 20. A tube element 22 is mounted obliquely above said base member, extending upwardly from the upper face thereof and radially inwardly by means of support 24 which is bolted to said base member and may hold said tube element by any suitable means, as by brazing or set screw. The axes of said tube 22 and of said hole 20 also define an angle therebetween. The lower orifice of the tube member 22 is positioned adjacent to the hole or passage 20, and the upper orifice thereof is preferably centered on the axis of rotation of the base member 16.

In the preferred embodiment the lower face 30 of the tube 22 is positioned vertically above the upper face 32 of the base member 16 so that the two are not in contact, but rather a gap exists therebetween. A preferred dimension for this gap, which should be wide enough to permit stray fibers moving freely therein (either through and to the atmosphere or back out and along with the moving sliver) so as to prevent clogging and log jams, is approximately inch.

The lower orifice of the tube 22 should preferably be of substantially the same configuration as, and directly above, the upper'orifice of the hole 20. It is necessary that the lower orifice of the tube element lie within the boundaries of the upper orifice of the passage 20. In the preferred embodiment as shown, the lower face 30 of the tube element 22 is in a 'plane approximately bisecting the angle between the axis of said tube element and the axis of the hole 20. The lower orifice of said tube element is of course an ellipse, lying in said plane. The upper surface 32 of the base member 16 is a portion of the surface of a cone generated by revolving about the axis of said base member a line parallel to the major axis of the elliptical lower orifice of the tube element 22. The

preached (total variation may, for example, be of the order of 1 inch), there is complete correspondence therebetween so that one lies directly below the other in allrespects.

'In operation, sliver passes down the tube element freely without clogging past the gapped junction between tube element and base member.

It will be understood that other embodiments of our invention will appear to those skilled in the art, and accordingly we do not'wish to be understood as limiting our invention to the details disclosed, except as set forth in the appended claims.

We claim:

1. In a sliver coiler, a tube gear comprising a base member mounted for rotation in a horizontal plane about a vertical axis, said base member having spaced from the axis of rotation thereof an upper surface portion slanted downwardly and inwardly toward said axis of rotation and having also spaced from said axis of rotation thereof a generally vertical passage of circular cross section extending therethrough and through said slanted upper surface portion, and a tube member mounted in fixed position on said base member extending upwardly from the upper .face of said base member and radially inwardly with its lower end opening positioned above and adjacent to said passage and spaced therefrom to form a substantially uniform gap therebetween and its upper end positioned adjacent said axis of rotation of said base member.

2. A tube gear as in claim 1 in which said lower end opening of said tube member is an ellipse defining a plane substantially bisecting the angle between the axis of said tube member and the axis of said passage and said slanted upper surface portion of said base member is defined by revolving about said axis of rotationof said base member a line parallel to the major axis of said ellipse, whereby the upper end opening of said passage defines when projected on said plane a corresponding ellipse.

3. In a sliver coiler, a tube gear comprising a base member mounted for rotation in a horizontal plane about a vertical axis, said base member having spaced from the axis of rotation thereof an upper surface portion slanted downwardly and inwardly toward said axis of rotation and having also spaced from said axis of rotation thereof a generally vertical passage of circular cross section extending therethrough and through said slanted upper surface portion, and a tube member mounted in fixed position on said base member extending upwardly from the upper face of said base member and radially inwardly with its lower end opening positioned above and adjacent to said passage and its upper end positioned adjacent said axis of rotation of said base member.

4. In a sliver coiler, a tube gear comprising a base member mounted for rotation in a horizontal plane about i a vertical axis, said base member having a first generally fiat upper surface portion and having spaced from the axis of rotation thereof a second surface portion extending at an angle to said first portion and merging therewith and having also spaced from said axis of rotation thereof a generally verticalpassage of circular cross section extending through said base member and through said second surface portion, and a tube member mounted in fixed position on said base member extending upwardly from the upper face of said base member and radially inwardly with its lower end opening positioned above and adjacent to said passage and its upper end positioned adjacent said axis of rotation of said base member.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,910,103 Gunter et a1. May 23, 1933 2,719,338 Carmichael Oct. 4, 1955 FOREIGN PATENTS 7,771 Great Britain of 1908 

